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Arsenic
Shrinks Safe Water Access
Dhaka, Bangladesh, Feb. 25 2002 (INS News) -- The
arsenic problem in the country is taking serious turn
day by day. According to experts, high percentage
of arsenic-affected tubewells in many rural areas
has shrunk overall access to safe drinking water.
According
to available statistics, 75 per cent of the population
has access to safe drinking water now, down from 97
per cent in 1997.
Whereas
the national water policy requires one 'safe water
point' for every fifty people, the ratio now is 100
to one.
Sources
say 3,571 out of 109,022 deep tubewells that can supply
safe drinking water are now out of order. Also, 45,025
out of 1,057,267 hand-pumped tubewells are inoperative.
The
percentage of arsenic-affected tubewells is more than
90 in different districts namely: Chandpur, Narayanganj,
Noakhali, Laxmipur and Chapainawabganj, and between
20 and 40 in Faridpur, Gopalganj, Comilla, Jessore,
Khulna, Barisal, Rajshahi, Natore and Naogaon districts.
In
one Chandpur upazila (a tire of local government),
Hajiganj, all the tubewells are contaminated. On average,
there are some 30,000 tubewells in one upazila.
Presence
of arsenic in groundwater beyond the World Health
Organisation standard was first detected in 1993.
Three years later, the government declared arsenic
contamination a national disaster.
Twenty-nine
per cent of some 1.2 million tubewells the Department
of Public Health and Engineering (DPHE) installed
are arsenic-contaminated.
Alternative
arrangements for safe drinking water in the affected
areas, provided by the government, are mostly insignificant
and confined to a few families.
Although
the government encourages use of surface water, filtered
with locally developed technique, and water from wells,
people find it inconvenient and revert to the tubewell
water despite arsenic contamination.
Meanwhile
in 1998-99, the DPHE and the British Geological Survey
detected high levels of uranium, manganese, boron,
sulphur, fluoride, molybdenum, barium and phosphorus
in groundwater samples from 61 districts.
"We
don't have laboratories facility now to test water
for these chemicals," DPHE Executive Engineer
Ihtishamul Huq told this correspondent.
In
Dhaka city, low levels of arsenic, antimony, boron,
cadmium, nickel, chromium, molybdenum and uranium
have also been detected in piped water.
"If
you consider the DPHE-BGS report and recent surveys
on tubewells, groundwater in only a few areas in the
northern districts are free from chemical poisoning,"
said an expert.
"The
fact is, the government machinery has no system to
determine the number of arsenic-contaminated tubewells.
They are just relying on estimates that have no relevance,"
observed another.
--
Humayun K Badal - Bangladesh
Correspondent in Dhaka, Bangladesh
-- To respond to this story or post a follow up e-mail
editor@insnews.org
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